Maya Kucherskaya


Maya Alexandrovna Kucherskaya is a Russian fiction writer, scholar, critic and professor.
She has earned degrees in Philology and Russian Literature, as well as a PhD in Slavic Languages & Literatures. She is a professor of Philology and head of the School of Creative Writing at the HSE University in Moscow.

Biography

Maya Kucherskaya was born in 1970 in Moscow, USSR. She graduated from the School of Philology of the Moscow State University in 1992. From 1992 to 1995, she studied in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in UCLA.
In 1997, Maya Kucherskaya defended her thesis "Russian Christmastide Story and the Problem of the Canon in Modern Literature" in MSU. She defended her second dissertation, titled "Grand Duke Constantine Romanov in Russian Cultural Mythology", in 1999 in UCLA.
Currently teaches at the Higher School of Economics as a professor at the School of Philology. From 2005 to 2015, she was a columnist for the newspaper Vedomosti.
Maya Kucherskaya is married with three children.
Author of the idea and screenwriter for a documentary about N. Leskov's great-granddaughter, ballerina and choreographer Tatyana Leskova, who has never lived in Russia.

Fiction

Dr. Kucherskaya has been publishing her critical works since 1990 and her fiction since the late 1990s. In 1998, "Volga" published the tale named "The Story of an Acquaintance" about a parishioner's love for her spiritual father during perestroika. The same plot later formed the basis for the novel "The God of Rain."
Maya Kucherskaya's first book of prose, a collection of short stories about contemporary Orthodoxy, "A Modern Patericon: Reading for the Desperate", was first published in "Znamya" magazine in 2004 and, along with the story "Snowball Fight," won the magazine's award. The book was subsequently reprinted several times and was awarded the Bunin Prize.
In 2005, the book "Konstantin Pavlovich," based on the writer's doctoral dissertation, was published in the "Lives of Remarkable People" series.
In 2007, "Vremya" Publishing House released Maya Kucherskaya's debut novel, "The God of Rain," which won the Student Booker Award. In 2008, the novel was shortlisted for the Yasnaya Polyana Award.
In September 2012, "Astrel" Publishing House released the psychological novel "Auntie Mina" on family issues in the 21st century. In 2013, the novel was shortlisted for the Big Book Award and the Yasnaya Polyana Award.
In the spring of 2014, the writer published a collection of experimental prose, "A Cry for the Drawing Teacher Who Left" at the AST Publishing House. This year, Kucherskaya was awarded the Order of the "Znamya" magazine.
In 2016, AST Publishing House released a collection of conversations between Maya Kucherskaya and practicing psychologist Tatyana Oizerskaya about a woman's path to happiness, "The Fish Swallowed Them...". In 2017, the same publishing house issued a collection of stories about the search for oneself and others while strolling around Moscow, "You Used to Be Completely Different: Eleven Urban Stories".
In 2021, Maya Kucherskaya's biography of N.S. Leskov, "The Overlooked Genius," based on archival materials, was published in the "Lives of Remarkable People" series. In December 2021, the book won second place in the Big Book Award, and in December 2022, it was shortlisted for the Yasnaya Polyana Award and the Reader's Award, a literary prize of the Russian library community. That same year, 2021, the writer published the book "The Bible for Children. Gospel Stories" at the AST Publishing House.
In 2025, Elena Shubina's Publishing House released Maya Kucherskaya's collection of Christmas stories, "Once at a Masquerade", which entered "The Big Book Award" shortlist that same year.

Research

Maya Kucherskaya is the author of numerous scholarly works in Russian and English. Her research interests include the works of Nikolai Leskov, Nikolai Nekrasov, and Ivan Turgenev; Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century; literary education in the 20th century; the history of creative writing in Russia; poetry and teaching practices of Joseph Brodsky.

Creative Writing

Dr. Kucherskaya is the founder and director of the at the Higher School of Economics. Since 2019, she has organized the annual research conference , held in collaboration with the Master's program.
In 2024, Maya Kucherskaya authored the concept, preface, and articles for the collection of research papers This collection introduced the concept of Creative Writing studies to the Russian humanities; dedicated to this academic field was created with the support of the Master's program.
She is the initiator and co-author of creative writing manuals, , and . In 2024, a collection of stories by graduates of the master's program, , was published under the editorship of Maya Kucherskaya, Alexandra Kaverkina, and Denis Bannikov.

Awards

2025 — Prize of the International Film Festival "Russia Abroad" for Best Film about Art named after S. Hollerbach. Shortlist for the Big Book Award.
2024 — Prize of the 17th International Film Festival "Salt of the Earth".
2022 — Shortlist for the Reader's Award.
2021 — Shortlist for the Yasnaya Polyana Award, the Big Book Award.
2020, 2015–2016, 2013, 2011 — Best Teacher.
2014 — Cavalier of the Order of the Znamya Magazine.
2013 — Shortlisted for the Big Book and Yasnaya Polyana awards, and won the Big Book Readers' Choice Award for "Auntie Mina".
2008 — Shortlisted for the Yasnaya Polyana Award for "The God of Rain".
2006 — Nominated for the Ivan Bunin Award for "The Modern Patericon".
2004 — Debuted in Znamya.

Selected criticism

  • Rodnyanskaya, I. // Novy Mir. 2004, no. 8.
  • Nemzer, A. // Nemzereski: website. 2004.
  • Korolenko, P. // Critical Mass. 2006, no. 1.
  • Nemzer, A. // Nemzereski: website. 2007.
  • Kaidalova, N. // Novy Mir. — 2008. — № 1.
  • Ganieva A. // Voprosy literatury. — 2011. — № 5.
  • Dyakova E. // Novaya Gazeta. — 2012. — № 111.
  • Semikin G. // Literaturnaya Gazeta. — 2012. — № 36.
  • Kotyusov A. // Druzhba Narodov. — 2014. — № 6.
  • Sekretov S. // Znamya. — 2015. — № 2.
  • Safronova E. // Rara Avis. — 2017. — July 18.
  • Sobolev L. The Overlooked Genius: Why We Need a New Biography of Nikolai Leskov // Gorky Media.
  • Ranchin A. // Novy Mir. — 2021. — № 6.
  • Krasnoselskaya Y. . Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya, 2021 // Bulletin of Moscow University. Series 9. Philology. — 2022. — № 1.